Woman poet discusses drone attacks, floods

KARACHI: Tahayyur-i-Hijr, a collection of poems by Hijab Abbasi, also discussing contemporary issues such as drone attacks, terrorism and devastating floods, was launched at the Arts Council of Pakistan here on Tuesday evening.

This was the second book of the poet. Her earlier collection was titled Tajdeed-i-Hijr, published in 2007 .

The event, held on the lawn of the Arts Council, began around two hours later than the designated time. Those who attended the event included Dr Shafqat Hussain Abbasi, Prof Sahar Ansari and Nusrat Sahar Abbasi, a member of the Sindh Assembly, Sarshar Siddiqui, Noshaba Siddiqui, Rukhsana Saba, Prof Ejaz Farooqi and Dr Nuzhat Abbasi.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Nuzhat Abbasi (the head of the Urdu department at a private university) told the audience that Hijab`s poems were “as soft and sensitive” as her personality.

She mentioned how the subject matter dealt with a myriad of human emotions from sadness and desperation to love and optimism.

She gave examples of two poems one of which was written from the perspective of a child whose home had been destroyed in a drone attack. The poet described with a keen sensitivity the trauma and bewilderment the child must have felt, and raised a question about the kind of future such a child could have.

Writer and poet Salman Siddiqui said not only all women in Pakistan lived under the tyrannical control of their husbands —— some women enjoyed a great amount of freedom. But he added that the ‘freedom’ was granted to them by their menfolk.

He said that although women were not completely free of male chauvinism in this world, Hjiab Abbasi was one such woman who exercised a great independence and freedom of mind.

One of poems Mr Siddiqui read out dealt with the last year`s floods that devastated a great part of the country and lamented that “how many dreams have been washed away in the flood…”

He said the book was a catharsis not only of the writer`s own life, but of society as a whole.

The event was jointly organised by the Anjuman-i-Ittehad Abbasiya and the Adabi Committee of the Arts Council.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/29/2011